The present invention relates to a sewing method and apparatus, particularly for closing the toe of hosiery items or an axial end of tubular articles in general.
U.S. Ser. No. 10/459,526 by the same Applicant discloses a double-cylinder circular hosiery knitting machine that is provided with a device that is capable of picking and transferring the article at the end of the knitting process, particularly for automating the closure of the toe of hosiery items.
According to the teachings provided by this patent application, to which reference is made for completeness of exposition, the articles, particularly a hosiery item, at the end of its production by means of a double-cylinder circular hosiery knitting machine, is extracted upward from the upper needle cylinder and its axial end or toe is flattened and inserted between the pair of substantially horizontal guiding laminas that are arranged at the inlet of a sewing machine that closes the article.
The sewing machines currently used for this operation are generally provided with two sewing heads, which are arranged sequentially along the advancement path of the article.
Each one of these sewing heads is capable of performing an overcast-stitch seam by means of a curved needle and a crochet, and the two heads are arranged generally at different heights each other so as to close the end of the articles by means of two rows of stitches that are slightly spaced from each other.
Currently commercially available sewing machines of this type are meant for mass-production with very short sewing times. For this reason, the cost of these machines is relatively high and in any case does not make it financially convenient to use a machine of this kind to serve a hosiery knitting machine.